The Price of Redemption
by marylwhit
Summary: When Sam vanishes without a trace, the only clues Dean has to his whereabouts are a simple note and a silver key. But who is the real target? Can he save Sam - and himself - before it's too late? T.


**_Hi, hope you like it - it's my first Supernatural fanfiction so please R&R if you'd like me to continue :) I live in New Zealand and we are sooooo far behind the USA with this show that it won't strictly follow any canon storyline. Hope you all enjoy._**

**_x_**

* * *

Dean Winchester was awake far before he found the strength to pull his eyes open. Flat on his back, in a cheap hotel bed, somewhere in the middle of America, he already knew something was wrong. It was dark. Not just because the curtains were tightly drawn, or because his eyes hadn't had a chance to adjust to the light, but because it was still the middle of the night - _or really early in the morning _- the time he would usually be getting in, not waking up. So he asked himself the obvious, why was he awake? He didn't have to think very hard, because the vibration coming from his left-side jeans pocket answered that for him. His phone was ringing, or rather, someone was trying to reach him. Bobby?

Groggy, he quickly dug his fingers into the tight denim confines and retrieved the device. Instantly checking the caller I.D, he was somewhat relieved to find it wasn't coming from Sam or Bobby's phone.

"_Hello_?

There was no answer.

"_Hello_?" He tried again, this time slightly agitated, and when the caller hung up, he swore under his breath and threw the phone to the ground, letting it bounce across the carpet and hit the dresser.

"_Thanks, Jackass."_

He flipped on to his stomach and forced his head into the pillow. Hunting was tiring, and he valued what little time he got to rest. Idiots who didn't seem to understand that - _like Sam when he decided to channel surf at 3 a.m. _- got right on his last nerve. It was gonna take him hours to fall back to sleep now, especially now he was worrying about whoever was on the other end, if it was Bobby using a payphone..or he didn't want the call to be traced..or.. or what if it was Sam?

He _knew_ his brother was asleep in the next bedroom, separated only by walls as thin as cardboard, but he couldn't help worrying. That's what big brothers did, he guessed. Well it was exhausting. Pulling himself out of bed, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep unless he could be certain Sam wasn't in any imminent danger, so even though he felt like a complete moron for doing so, he decided to check on him.

Yet, just as his fingertips touched the door handle, his phone starting vibrating again. Buzzing against the dresser.

This time he ran to it.

Again, it wasn't Bobby or Sam's phone, but he was still quick to flip it open. Pressing the call button, he began to answer with a gruff, "_Do you have any idea what time _-" But he froze when the caller began to speak.

"Dean?"

The voice was familiar. Disturbingly familiar. Distorted and broken and hopeless.

"Sammy?"

Sam didn't answer this time, but Dean could hear a muffled sound coming from the other end of the phone, and even though he wasn't entirely sure what it was, images of Sam tied up and gagged flew into his head.

"Where are you?" He asked, and when Sam didn't reply, Dean yelled it again, and then again. But the line had gone dead, emitting an ominous beeping far to slow to match Deans pounding heart.

He dropped the phone, kicking open the door to Sam's room and tearing the sheets form the bed, desperate to find his brother nestled among them, for this to be a horrible nightmare and nothing more. But he didn't find Sam. Instead, he found a note scrawled in something that looked disturbingly like blood - _oh god, not Sam's blood_ - and a single silver key.

Picking up the note with shaky hands, and aided by the moonlight shining through Sam's broken window, he read it slowly.

"_Do you want to play a game?"_

* * *

_**Just a short intro, R&R if it's promising enough to continue :) May have some 'elements' from a 'certain-well-known-horror-film' but none of the characters or extreme gore.**_


End file.
